I used to be the fat guy that never thought I could make a change. It all changed for me when my Dad asked me to walk with him. He felt that he needed to do something about his health. He was not nearly as overweight as I was. He could not stand it anymore. I personally had not gotten to that point yet but agreed to walk with him because I wanted him to succeed. I had been trying to get him to quite smoking for years with no success. If I could help him do this then I would feel good. Every day we walked. At first we just walked slow and talked for about a mile round trip. As the days went by we picked up our pace. We began to walk one more street over each week. Pretty soon this fat guy and his 75 year old dad were walking 5 miles a day. My father lost 60lbs and is in the best condition he has been in 30 years at 75. I found myself feeling better and loosing weight too. I had not intended this but I really started to get into it. Eight months later I still walk with my Dad every day but I also run 5 miles every day before we meet. I went from 278lbs at 6' to my current weight of 182. Since me and m y Dad and I started walking last March we have become different people.
I know you probably hear all kinds of stories about people who have success. I never ever thought that I would be one of the ones writing those stories. I have tried to diet, exercise for years and always failed after about week 2 or 3. I am not sure if it was the fact that I was doing it for my Dad or that it was because I didn't mean to do it. The fact was that it was easy for me this time. We never really spent more than an hour and a half walking. We just picked up our pace to walk more as the weeks went by. It just felt like we were visiting while walking.
I think it was a combination of a lot of things that brought me and my Dad success. He is still smoking and can't quite bring the success he had from walking to quitting smoking. I don't smoke and can't help him with that. He does not have the support that he did with me exercising. Support is key. It can be a best friend, co-worker, or spouse. Next is start off slow. Everyone is anxious to begin and that is usually the thing that causes the problem. The over anxious and impatient for results attitude will cause you to start off at a pace that you will not be able to sustain. It has to be easy in the beginning so you don't hate doing it so much. We started off walking a half mile each way, not 5 miles right off the start. If we started walking 5 miles right away we would have given up the second or third day and blamed it on the aches and pains in our bodies. We would have told ourselves that we were just going to rest a few days to let out bodies recoup. That is the formula for failure. Start off with a half hour a day. Just walk till you have reached 15 minutes on your watch and turn around at that point and come back. Do it every day and fight the excuses. Each week ad a couple of minutes to the time you walk. Get a partner to walk with so that you can visit while walking that way you don't think about the distance and time so much. A ipod with all your favorite songs also works. If you feel good and want to walk farther one day, do it but don't commit yourself to it every day after. Make your committed distance or time consistent for the week.
Pretty soon you will be walking 5 miles a day and enjoying it. I do!
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